Famous dad a mixed blessing for Madigan

October 13, 2002|By John McCormick, Tribune staff reporter.

Former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon stood in the crowded living room of an upscale Park Ridge home, the deep-voiced, bow-tied symbol of Democratic integrity lending his aura of veracity to Lisa Madigan's campaign for attorney general.

Visiting the first of several coffees that he and the Democratic contender would attend that day, even Simon couldn't resist telling the audience about his trepidation when hiring Madigan for a five-month stint on his Washington staff in 1986.

"I told her father, `Mike, if she can't cut it, I'm going to have to cut her like anyone else,'" recalled Simon, who chairs her campaign. Then Simon stared straight at his audience and delivered the punch line: "You don't like to fire the daughter of the speaker of the House."

Simon played the story for laughs, but it also was a reminder of an inescapable political fact: Lisa Madigan wouldn't have worked for Paul Simon, wouldn't have won a North Side state Senate seat, wouldn't even be standing in that living room as the Democratic nominee for attorney general if it weren't for her father.

For every step Lisa Madigan, 36, has taken in politics, her father, the powerful speaker of the Illinois House, veteran Democratic ward committeeman and state Democratic chairman, has helped groom the way. He is the double-edged sword of her political career, cutting a path for her advancement while also tarnishing her image with heavy-handed clout.

"It's a mixed bag," she said in assessing the political benefits and baggage of being the daughter of Michael Madigan. "In some ways it would be easier and, in some ways, it would be more difficult."

Every time Lisa Madigan has gone on the attack in her campaign, the message has been muted by questions about the aggressiveness of her father's support. Each time she has tried to point out her independence, she has been forced to defend his efforts to get her elected.

She frequently spells out legislative differences with her father: her support for abortion rights, her opposition to the publicly financed renovation of Soldier Field and the expansion of gambling in Cook County.

She talks about proposals to step up the role of the attorney general's office on issues such as domestic violence and probing public corruption. But she also has had to defend herself from charges that she has essentially left the nuts and bolts of her campaign to her father.

Records on file with the State Board of Elections show the Michael Madigan-led Democratic Party of Illinois has provided more than $469,000 worth of assistance to Lisa Madigan from December of last year through the end of June, with the help ranging from a cadre of workers to doughnuts, cab fare and balloons.

Worth even more to his daughter are indirect resources he has steered her way. He has dunned the campaign funds of Democratic lawmakers for contributions to his daughter. State records show that over the last year they have anted up more than $450,000. Patronage workers with ties to Michael Madigan's 13th Ward Democratic organization also have been generous financial supporters of Lisa Madigan.

All that is on top of the requests the speaker has made to an array of politicians and patronage workers for birthday party and wedding invitation lists, information that has been turned into an ever-expanding database of names of more potential contributors and supporters.

Despite the cash they bring in, some such efforts have led to discomfort for his daughter.

Federal agents have attempted to question a Cook County judge whose sons gave $50,000 to Lisa Madigan late last year. The contributions, some of the largest Lisa Madigan has received, were made around the time that Michael Madigan lent special campaign help to the judge.

A primary election endorsement of Lisa Madigan by the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police is also being reviewed by federal agents amid allegations that Michael Madigan coerced the organization into backing his daughter by threatening their legislative agenda.

Michael Madigan has denied any wrongdoing.

Lisa Madigan insists that she is accruing piles of cash and endorsements because of her record, not her father's influence. Still, her attempts to demonstrate a measure of independence from her father sometimes reveal personal exasperation. "The reality is, Mike Madigan is not my biological father," she told a suburban newspaper editorial board last February.

Lisa Madigan arrived in Michael Madigan's home at the age of 10 when her mother, Shirley Murray, remarried after a bitter divorce.When she graduated from the private Latin School in Chicago, her high school yearbook recorded her as Lisa Murray, a student government leader, president of the pep club and a volleyball captain.

By the age of 18, she had changed her last name to Madigan. Later, in her 20s, she said she was formally adopted by Michael Madigan.